The Fouga Magister is a French-developed primary jet trainer that first flew in 1952 and was built in France until 1962 (a licensed operation in Finland continued until 1967). The aircraft was a popular choice for aerobatic teams, but also was used in combat by Israel, El Salvador, and Katanga.
Kinetic’s new Magister double kit is the first mainstream 1/48 scale model of this well-known jet. The kit is molded in gray plastic; main parts are clean and flash-free, but many of the small parts have minor flash. Options provide choices for the canopy, nose guns, wing racks, rockets, separate control surfaces, and photoetched-metal detail.
After checking the instructions, which seemed a bit simplistic, I started construction with the nose gear and cockpit interior. The nose gear assembly is a bit tricky, with four separate parts forming a triangle. This is then attached to the nose-wheel bulkhead. Be careful of alignment, as it will affect the attachment of the wheel fork.
After installing the cockpit tub to a fuselage side and joining the fuselage halves, I checked the fit of the canopy and found the fuselage had been pushed out by the cockpit tub. This resulted in the canopy being too narrow at its midpoint; on the second plane, I narrowed the cockpit tub by filling and sanding. This helped, but it wasn’t perfect. I had test-fitted the fuselage and canopy without the cockpit in place at the start of construction and saw no issues, so I have to conclude that the cockpit tub needs a major rework to make it fit properly.
The aft cockpit deck has no positive attachment point; without some help, it will just drop inside the fuselage. I laid a sheet-styrene shelf across the cockpit opening aft of the back seat bulkhead.
On the Israeli version, I used the nose-gun parts — nose panels with gun ports and the gun barrels. When I found the gun barrel had no positive attachment point, I had to carefully trap it in place as I installed the gun-bay cover. The guns are given in a staggered configuration, but photos show barrels of the same length. Check your references if you’re taking this option.
The engine intake fit is poor. I needed a fair amount of filler to close up the gaps.
The main wing assembled easily. Flaps and ailerons are separate. The flaps (B1/2 and B9/10) have optional mounting pegs for up or down positions — and this is where I started running into mistakes and omissions in the instructions. The drawings actually show mounting the flaps with both pegs in place! Optional parts are provided for the ailerons, but the instructions are not very clear about those either.
When I got to assembling and installing the V-shaped tail planes, the poor instructions struck again! There is no parts callout for the three-piece assemblies; the instructions just show the assembled part placement. But don’t worry — it is easy to figure out which parts to use.
The transparent parts are well molded and very clear. The kit provides a full-length closed canopy as well as a five-piece option for open canopies. Optional parts are given for a metal-covered rear canopy section.
Be sure to add weight to the nose to prevent the plane from being a tail-sitter.
I painted the two kits with both Tamiya spray and acrylic paints.
Decals by Cartograf are provided for five aircraft. They applied well with a touch of decal solution. The two sets of aerobatic markings are colorful and well done.
I completed my two Magisters in 30 hours, and the finished models look neat. On the downside, more effort than I anticipated was required to overcome the inconsistent molding, poor fits, and poor instructions. Consequently, I would recommend this kit to experienced modelers only.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the November 2014 FineScale Modeler.